


Phugoid

by ahiijny



Category: Senki Zesshou Symphogear
Genre: Drabbles, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Symphogear G
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:08:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 19,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28665249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ahiijny/pseuds/ahiijny
Summary: After the Frontier incident, Shirabe wakes up in the middle of the night to the sound of muffled sobs coming from Kirika's bunk.
Relationships: Akatsuki Kirika/Tsukuyomi Shirabe
Comments: 1
Kudos: 25





	1. Practice Mode

_Um, so, this is awkward_ , thinks Shirabe, lying in her bed in the darkness of their prison cell, staring at the underside of the bunk above her.

She has to really strain her ears to hear it, but now that she's noticed it, she just can't bring herself to ignore it: The muffled sounds of sobbing from Kirika's bunk above her.

Shirabe's first instinct is to roll over, go back to sleep, and pretend she never heard anything. But this is _Kirika_. The girl who's always been there for Shirabe; the girl who made it her mission to protect her, even when she was in as much need of protection as Shirabe herself. And so, if she takes the easy way out here, what does that say about what she thinks of Kirika? No, she owes it to Kiri-chan to put in more effort in than that.

Her heart pounds at the thought of doing something to intervene here. It's a bit out of her comfort zone. She's not good at dealing with this sort of thing. Usually it's the other way around, with Kiri-chan forcing her way past Shirabe's shields to comfort _her_.

_But if it were me, would I even really want someone to intervene?_ She frowns. _It'd be embarrassing. I think I'd rather just cry myself in private and get it out of my system, so that no one else finds out._

But on the other hand…

Even if she were in that situation, even if she would be mortified at someone finding her in such a pathetic state, she thinks she'd still be secretly hoping for someone like Kiri-chan to come along and offer her hugs and comfort, someone who could just brazenly push past any of her weak protests.

" _Sh…Shirabe…_ " The whimper from the above bunk is almost too quiet to be heard.

But people's minds have a knack of zeroing in on hearing one's own name, don't they? So Shirabe's ears pick up the words even though they're barely just at the threshold of hearing. It's obvious that Kirika is trying to keep herself as quiet as possible to avoid waking up either Shirabe or Maria.

Shirabe takes a deep breath and lets it out. Her mind is already made up. She braces herself in anticipation of meeting the relative coldness of the room.

This place isn't as cold and uncomfortable as back on their FIS airship by any means (Div 2 is being astonishing generous in their accommodations of the three despite their crimes, and she's starting to have nagging doubts about why on earth they're pampering their prisoners so much), but it's still a bit of an unpleasant contrast to the warmth inside her blankets.

Then, taking another deep breath, she throws the blankets off, and then steps out onto the cold, prison floor.

They have slippers, but she's not going to bother to try and find them in this darkness, since she's just going to be climbing up to the top bunk right away. She's climbed this thing enough times during the day that she can more or less find the footholds on this ladder without needing to see them. She glances over at her bed, and after a brief moment of contemplation, she grabs her pillow. She might need this.

And then, up she climbs.

As soon as her head peeks over the edge of the top bunk, she whispers, "Kiri-chan? Are you all right?"

Kirika's breath hitches, and then her sobbing stops. "It's nothing," says the blonde, her voice thick. She rolls over to her right, away from the ladder.

"...Do you mind if I join you?" asks Shirabe.

No response from Kirika.

Shirabe bites her lip, and then takes a deep breath. "I'm coming in, unless you say otherwise," she says.

At the very least, Kirika doesn't object. It's not like there's anything too unusual about this scenario, anyway. Back during the uncomfortable cold nights in the FIS aircraft, Shirabe did this somewhat frequently as well; bringing their futons closer together to share some warmth.

Shirabe tosses her pillow down to the left of Kirika's, on the side closer to the ladder, Shirabe gingerly picks up the edge of Kirika's blankets and then dives underneath. She sighs in relief at the warmth of the covers.

She turns to Kirika, who's lying facing away from her. "Kiri-chan?" she asks, hesitantly placing a hand on her friend's shoulder.

The girl is shaking slightly.

Shirabe grimaces. "Um," she says quietly. "Is everything all right?"

More silence.

Shirabe's not used to this level of stonewalling. Kirika's the one who's normally so cheery and upbeat. If anything, Shirabe's typically the one who's too closed in on herself, and Kirika's the one who works on pulling Shirabe out of herself.

"Kiri-chan," Shirabe says quietly, wrapping her arms around Kirika from behind and pulling her close.

" _Ugahh_!" exclaims Kirika, "your feet are _cold!_ " And now the blonde is turning around and pushing Shirabe away.

Shirabe smiles sheepishly. "Sorry." Although it's dark, she can at least somewhat see Kirika's face, from the faint ambient lighting of the emergency exit lights and the smoke detector lights and various other tiny lights scattered around the room.

Her friend's face is a mess. Tears are streaking down her face and her eyes look swollen and red.

"Oh, Kiri-chan," murmurs Shirabe, reaching out with her sleeve and wiping away a few of Kirika's tears.

"God, Shirabe," says Kirika, smiling weakly, "couldn't you have just gone back to sleep and let me cry in peace?"

"Now, what kind of friend would I be if I did that?" asks Shirabe. She scoots a little closer to Kirika, touching her feet against Kirika's. "And I'm not the only one with cold feet. Yours are cold, too."

"Are not," says Kirika, none of her usual cheer in her voice at all. She just sounds really exhausted.

"I'm here," says Shirabe, placing a hand on Kirika's shoulder. "Just remember that."

Kirika's lip quivers, and then she starts wiping furtively at her eyes. "I had a bad dream," she murmurs.

"Er…" says Shirabe. "Do you want to talk about it?"

There's a long silence.

Kirika turns onto her back, staring up at the ceiling. "I dreamt I killed you," she says in a quiet voice. "With my… you know, with my Symphogear."

There's another long silence as Shirabe struggles to figure out how to respond to that. Because how _are_ you supposed to respond to something like that?

"That sounds… bad," Shirabe finally says. "But it was only a dream. I'm right here."

"Don't you think I know that?" snaps Kirika. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. "But it really was my fault. Back there, back on Frontier, I really did almost kill you." She grits her teeth. "I can't believe myself!"

Shirabe rubs Kirika's arm. "But I'm fine. I wasn't even hurt, because of Finé. No harm done."

Kirika pulls her arm away and slaps herself on the face with both hands. "Auuuuughhhh!"

"Kiri-chan?"

The blonde slaps herself on the face again with both hands, her eyes clenched shut. "I'm so stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" She rolls over, back and forth. "Frick, frick, frick!"

Shirabe watches helplessly as Kirika rolls back and forth.

Finally, Kirika turns to Shirabe, peeking through her fingers, her eyes teary. "I'm so stupid. All that time, I thought Finé was about to reincarnate in me. But, she was actually inside you. That time that scaffolding collapsed on us in the construction site… The one who protected us with that shield magic wasn't me, it was you. And while I was freaking out and just being dumb, you were actually being smart and doing the right thing. Even though you were the one who was Finé..." Kirika chokes back a sob.

Shirabe puts a hand on Kirika's shoulder. "It worked out all right in the end, didn't it? It turned out that Finé was actually being nice and staying hidden. So if it had been you, or if it had been me, it wouldn't have made a difference. It all would have worked out in the end."

"But even then!" Kirika sniffs, wiping her eyes. "I'm so dumb. Stupid. Dumb."

Shirabe frowns, feeling terrible. She _really_ doesn't like it when Kiri talks like that about herself. But what should she even say? Because while Shirabe knows Kiri isn't as dumb as she's making herself out to be, to be honest, Shirabe really did find some of Kiri's actions back during the Frontier incident to be… a bit frustrating, to say the least.

Injecting her with Anti-LiNKER out of nowhere, for goodness sake. They were in the middle of a Noise swarm! What would have Kirika done if a Noise had gotten the jump on Shirabe when she'd been unarmed and defenceless? Sometimes she wishes Kirika would think more before she acts.

It's not like she can say those things right now though. There's a time and a place. But Shirabe really doesn't really particularly like sugarcoating things, either. She doesn't like lying.

After along period of silence, interspersed with just the sound of Kirika's stifled sobs, Shirabe says, "K…Kiri-chan. We all make mistakes. We've all done some pretty stupid things in our lives. But that doesn't make you stupid. Please don't call yourself stupid! I won't let you."

"But it's true," says Kirika, sniffling. "It's a _fact_."

"It's not," says Shirabe. She scoots closer and throws an arm over Kirika. "Please. Kiri-chan. I already told you, I forgive you."

"…" Kirika stares at Shirabe, and then grimaces. "I saw the blood coming out of you when my scythe went into your back. It went _deep_. If that miracle hadn't happened… You'd be dead. The only reason you're alive is because of a miracle. 99 times out of 100, you'd be dead. And it's my fault."

"But I'm not dead," says Shirabe, rubbing Kirika's back. "I'm still here. The miracle did happen. There's no use in dwelling on hypotheticals…"

Kirika clenches her eyes shut, shaking. "Tell that to that brain of mine, then!" Opening her eyes, she grabs onto Shirabe's other hand. "I keep seeing you dead in my dreams. I… I've been afraid to go to sleep these days."

Shirabe winces. "That sounds rough."

"…Yeah," murmurs Kirika.

There's a bit of a moment of silence.

"You're not stupid," Shirabe murmurs stubbornly, reaching over and rubbing Kirika's back. "You're great. Sometimes you know just the right thing to say. Back when we were still in F.I.S., you've helped me in more ways than you think."

Kirika just lets out a vague, defeated sound. She shuffles in closer, resting her head against Shirabe's chest. She takes a deep, shaky breath, and then lets it out.

Shirabe rests her head on top of Kirika's. "Kiri-chan, I love you, okay?"

"Mrrgh," Kirika says, still sniffling slightly.

They stay like that for a while.

Soon, Kirika's breathing evens out.

Shirabe blinks in the darkness, feeling the slow rising and falling of Kirika's chest against her body. _Kiri-chan fell asleep already?..._

Well, it is still pretty early in the morning, after all.

Shirabe pulls Kirika a bit closer, letting out a slightly shaky breath. If Kirika has another bad dream, Shirabe will be right here when Kirika wakes up. And with that, Shirabe closes her eyes, Kirika's warmth by her side, and lets herself slowly slip back into sleep.


	2. Orbital Beat

When Shirabe wakes up, the spot next to her in bed is empty. She can hear the faint sound of running water coming from the washroom on the other end of their cell.

She blinks sleepily, and then stretches her arms, yawning.

Was last night just a dream?

No. She's in the top bunk, which is Kirika's bed. Shirabe reaches out and touches the blankets next to her. They're still warm. Kirika must have only gotten up a short while ago, then.

Sitting up, wrapping the blankets around her, Shirabe takes a look around the room. Maria is already up in her bed, reading something with a frown on her face. And on the other end of the cell, she can see that the washroom lights are on, from the gap underneath the door.

This prison cell is honestly quite a bit nicer than she'd been expecting, when the Japanese government first brought them into custody. If not for the solid, locked, bunker-like door and the lack of windows, it could easily pass as some kind of school dorm room, or a fairly decent communal housing place, rather than a prison.

To be honest, the living arrangements here are nicer than the living facilities back at F.I.S., way nicer than their temporary accommodations in the abandoned hospital, and light-years better than their near-freezing makeshift living spaces on the plane. Considering all the terrible things they've done, Shirabe sometimes has a faint nagging sense of guilt about whether or not they're getting off _too_ easily.

A short while later, Kirika emerges from the washroom, her hair wet. "Oh hey, Shirabe, you're up!" she says, raising a hand and smiling.

"Ah, I guess," says Shirabe. She still feels a bit sleepy though. She feels like she could easily go for another several hours of sleep. "What time is it?"

"It's eight in the morning," says Maria, looking up.

Shirabe's not really a morning person. Kirika and Maria seem to have a much easier time waking up early in the morning that she does.

"Oh right," says Maria. "You two, I'm going to meet with a U.N. representative later this morning, so I may not be back for some time. I don't know how long the meeting will take, so if I'm late for lunch, go ahead and eat without me."

"U.N. representative?" asks Kirika, walking over to their bed and taking a seat on the bottom bunk. "What could they want from you?"

"Quite a number of things, possibly," says Maria, frowning. "Well, it's not like I have a choice in the matter. I'll have to see what they're up to when the time comes."

"Cool," says Kirika, nodding. "Maybe you can strike a deal to finally let us out of here? Ha, just kidding!" She giggles. She claps her hands. "Oh, what do you think we'll get for breakfast today?" She rubs her hands together eagerly. "It's like a lottery! I'm so excited!"

_It's like she's a completely different person from last night,_ thinks Shirabe, a bit thrown off by Kirika's upbeat mood. _But a full night's sleep can do that to you, I guess?_

Shirabe glances at the clock. "I'd better brush my teeth," she says, crawling out of her little blanket burrito and climbing down the ladder. She feels like she could continue sleeping for a while if she really wanted to, but breakfast is coming soon, so she might as well get up now. The meals in this place always get delivered to them through the slot out over on the far side of the room at the exact same times every day. Breakfast at 08:30 sharp, lunch at 12:00 sharp, and dinner at 17:30 sharp. Every day, like clockwork.

Maria's still reading through the papers in her hand. There are whole bunch of other papers spread out in a haphazard mess on the woman's bed. She's muttering to herself, her brows creased.

As Shirabe walks past Kirika, who's still sitting on the bottom bunk, Shirabe pauses.

Kirika smiles up at her.

Shirabe takes a seat to the left of her friend, reaching out and giving Kirika's hand a quick squeeze.

Kirika's smile falters just slightly. "Ah…" After a brief moment of hesitation, she just nods, and then squeezes back.

They stay like that for a brief moment, before Shirabe gently pulls her hand away, feeling slightly flustered. "Ah, I'll be right back," she says, pointing at the washroom door as she gets up.

Kirika nods. "Take your time," she says, waving.

_…The three of us._ Shirabe thinks as she brushes her teeth, her mind still a bit hazy from sleep. _What's going to happen to us?_ Now that there's nothing to do all day, she's had an abundant amount of time to think. Aside from the better living conditions and the better food, her situation isn't really any different from her life at F.I.S. But unlike at F.I.S., she doesn't have training to improve her Symphogear skills to work on, or any ongoing long-term plans to save the world, or anything like that. She feels so… directionless.

After brushing her teeth and splashing water on her face, she feels a little more awake.

"Phew," she says, walking back into the room.

"You're not going to take a shower?" asks Kirika.

"I'm more of an evening shower person, myself," says Shirabe.

"We never shower together like we used to," pouts Kirika, looking oddly dejected.

"Well, the shower stall in there is kind of too small for two people," says Shirabe. "And besides, it's not like we're training in our Gears anymore, so there's really no need for us to shower that often."

"Pragmatic as always, Shirabe," says Kirika, sighing.

"Hmm," says Shirabe.

"Hey, hey, after we get out, how about all three of us have a big bath together, to celebrate?" says Kirika.

Maria looks up from her paper, blinking. "You mean, like an onsen?"

"Yeah!" says the blonde.

"Hmm," says Maria, turning the idea around in her head. She shrugs. "Sure, I don't see why not."

"It's gotta be way better than the deathly lame showers back at that hospital, right?" says Kirika.

Maria chuckles humourlessly, turning her attention back to the papers in her hand. "I guess that's true," she says.

Shirabe grimaces. Here they are, optimistically talking about when they get released, but as far as she's aware, that isn't even on the table yet. They've been here in this cell for almost a week now, and Shirabe still doesn't really know what will become of the three of them. The Japanese Division 2 Commander, Genjuurou-san, and the other Division 2 staff they've had brief interactions with have all been rather tight-lipped on the matter.

Maria, Shirabe, and Kirika had willingly surrendered themselves to the Japanese government after the end of the Frontier incident, and they were moved straight to this holding facility. No lawyer, no trial.

Actually, doesn't Japan still have the death penalty? (She's not sure.) The three of them did a lot of horrible things. They were responsible for the deaths of a lot of people as well. Shirabe's heart pounds in her chest. Is this why no one's told them how long they're going to be in here? Because no one wants to give them the hard news?

She takes a deep breath. No, but near the end of that incident, the three of them all helped Japan's Symphogear wielders to bring an end to that crisis. The Division 2 Commander seems like a nice man. Surely he wouldn't let something like that happen to them. Surely Hibiki-san wouldn't let something like that happen to them.

But even then, considering the terrible things the three of them did, they might receive something as severe as a life sentence. Or some number of decades in prison, at the very least.

Though actually…

Shirabe glances at Maria. At the very serious expression on the woman's face. The numerous, official-looking documents scattered around her bed. Her half-hearted, half-distracted responses to the enthusiastic Kirika's attempts at conversation as she continues scanning the contents of the papers.

_What if… This has something to do with that?_ Both Kirika and Shirabe are still fairly young children, all things considered; maybe it would make sense for the grown-ups to want to keep them out of the loop on these things.

Over the last several days here, there had been a number of occasions where they had been taken out to various different meeting rooms for questioning. The three of them had been questioned separately. (Perhaps to ensure there were no discrepancies in their accounts?)

But Shirabe noticed that Maria was called out a lot more than Kirika and Shirabe were. Thinking back on it, there were a number of occasions where Shirabe and Kirika were left to their own devices in this cell while Maria was out talking to some official-looking person or other.

Shirabe grimaces. _Do I even want to know?... They say that ignorance is bliss. But is it really?..._

"And then, we can go…" says Kirika, trailing off as Shirabe reaches out and touches the blonde's hand.

Shirabe smiles weakly. "Erm. Maria looks a bit busy right now, so maybe we should move somewhere else so that we don't bother her?"

Kirika blinks. "Ah. R-right! Of course!"

"We're going to play over there for now," says Shirabe, pointing at the corner of the cell, next to the table and the bookshelf. "So, call us if you need anything."

Maria just gives a sound of acknowledgement, smiling briefly, barely glancing up for more than a second.

They have an entire shelf of various books and board games in here. Shirabe picks one out at random. Chess. Hm, she barely knows how to play this game at all, but okay. She frowns, staring at the chess set in her hands.

Is it normal for Japanese prisoners to have access to such a wide variety of games and entertainment? She feels like that isn't usually the case. She still feels like they're getting off too easily. It worries her.

"Shirabe?" asks Kirika.

Oh, she spaced out for a moment there, didn't she. "Ah, sorry, Kiri-chan." She smiles, holding up the game. "Do you want to play some chess?"

Kirika smiles. "Sure, but I don't really know how to play."

"That's fine, I don't either."

They briefly look over the rules in the instruction manual, trying to get a sense of how all the different pieces move and what the basic rules are. Then, they decide to just jump into a game.

As they play, Kirika sneaks a few glances at Shirabe. "Um…" she says in a quiet voice. She smiles weakly. "Thanks. For last night."

"Ah," says Shirabe, momentarily taken off guard. "Of course. Yeah. No problem."

"It's not normally that bad," says Kirika, looking slightly guilty. "Sorry if I freaked you out or anything."

"No, no, it's fine." Shirabe looks up. "Do you want to sleep together again tonight?"

"H-huh?" says Kirika, blinking in surprise. Her face reddens. "Uh…" She looks away, rubbing the back of her head. "If _you're_ okay with it."

Shirabe smiles. "Of course I am." She blinks glancing down at the board. "Wait, I'm in check."

Kirika stares. "Oh, huh, you're right. Oops, I guess I should have announced that."

"When did that happen?"

"It… might have been a few moves ago? I'm kinda bad at spotting these… Ehe."

The two of them laugh.

They're really bad at chess.


	3. Tegami

Kirika yawns, stretching her arms. Is it morning already? She blinks sleepily, and then sits up, glancing at the digital clock visible on the far wall of their shared cell.

It's 8am.

She has a bit of time before it's breakfast, then. She'll just use this time to wash up first. She carefully climbs over Shirabe, taking care to not wake her up, and then climbs down the ladder.

It looks like Maria is already awake. She's always been an early riser, getting up even before Kirika.

"Morning," Kirika says quietly as she walks by, smiling.

Maria looks up from her book, and nods. "Morning, Kirika."

"Whacha reading?" asks Kirika, peering at the paperback, curious.

Maria shows Kirika the cover: _So You're In Prison. What Now? by Tony Glazer._

"Huh," says Kirika. "That seems relevant."

Maria nods. "I asked Tsubasa for book recommendations, and she picked this out for me. I was a bit bored."

Kirika laughs. "Well, makes sense."

"Turns out Mr. Glazer wrote a lot of different kinds of books," says Maria, smiling wryly.

"Maybe I'll read that one next." Kirika smiles sheepishly. "You'll probably have to tell me what the harder words mean though, I'm not that good at reading."

"Of course!" says Maria, nodding.

"Oh, what day it is today?" asks Kirika.

"Hmm," says Maria, pausing for a moment. "Saturday. I think?"

"Geez, it doesn't feel like a Saturday." Kirika rubs the back of her head. "It's kinda funny how staying inside in the same place all day really messes up your sense of time."

"Indeed," says Maria.

Back when they were still planning to awaken Frontier, Kirika feels like she was much more aware of the passing days. They needed to, after all; they had to be aware of what the other Symphogears were up to. For example, weekdays were safer because the Division 2 girls would be more tied up with school. They planned that infiltration of Lydian's culture festival a good week in advance, and they kept a running tally of the days remaining.

But now that there's nothing to do all day, the days are starting to just blur together. If not for the clock above the food slots, Kirika's not even sure if she'd be able to tell day and night apart.

It actually… reminds her a bit of her F.I.S. days. Honestly, those years were a blur, and she's finding it surprisingly difficult to remember much from that time. Those days were long and unpleasant, but somehow, at the same time, it also seems like it passed in a flash. Funny how that works.

"By the way, you're still sleeping with Shirabe?" comments Maria, glancing up at the upper bunk where the dark-haired girl is still sleeping. "Aren't you two getting a little old for that?"

"We want to, though," Kirika says huffily, putting her hands on her hips. "Besides, didn't we sleep together a lot back at the airship?"

"That was to keep warm," says Maria. "But that's not really needed here, since they keep the room warm enough."

"It's still kinda cold, though!"

"Well, okay." Maria doesn't seem too concerned about it, so she lets the matter drop.

Kirika points at the bathroom. "Imma shower now."

After brushing her teeth and washing her face, Kirika jumps into the shower and turns the heat up to as high as she can tolerate. She stares blankly at the wall as the water sprays onto her head.

Okay, thinking about F.I.S. is kinda making her feel kinda depressed again.

The difference between being test subjects of F.I.S. and being out and free to do whatever they wanted in the world was like night and day.

In their first several weeks after they were freed from the facility, they were all thrilled by how much freedom they had. They could eat whatever they wanted. They could eat _whenever_ they wanted.

The first time she ever ate a cup of instant ramen will always hold a special place in her heart. Sure, it was cheap, sure, it was maybe slightly too salty, but it was the first meal she ever had after being freed from the facility.

Mom gave them all a choice. She asked all of them if they wanted to help them with the plan to save the moon from falling or not. To Kirika, it was almost a no-brainer. She knew that she, Shirabe, and Maria were the only ones in the facility who could properly wield Symphogears, even if they did have to depend on the doctor's LiNKER.

As one of the top three in that facility, it just kind of felt like her responsibility, so of course she accepted.

But also… To be honest, freedom was a bit scary, even? Back at the facility, their daily routines were rigidly scheduled and planned in advance. Suddenly torn away from that schedule, Kirika had been feeling slightly uncertain and directionless. The goal of stopping the moon at least gave her something to aim for.

And it let her stay together with the two most precious persons in her life, so of course she doesn't regret that.

But…

Now that her freedom has been constrained again, inside this cell…

She's together with Shirabe and Maria, and she's grateful for that (she probably would have lost her mind if they'd placed them in separate cells… she's sooooo glad they didn't do that), but…

Is this the ideal outcome?

Kirika frowns, staring blankly at the water flowing down her body.

What's going to become of them, anyway?

Is there anything they should have done differently?

An image of a certain green scythe stabbing into a certain dark-haired girl's back flashes through Kirika's mind.

Kirika shakes her head rapidly, clenching her fists, her fingernails digging painfully into her skin.

She takes several deep breaths.

"Frick, frick, frick," she mutters under her breath, trying to banish the image from her mind.

There's no point in dwelling on that.

As Kirika walks out of the bathroom, drying her hair with her towel, she notices that Shirabe already awake, sitting up in their top bunk, yawning sleepily.

She greets the girl with a smile and a wave.

Shirabe just sleepily nods back.

Breakfast is fairly uneventful. The food is delicious, as always.

At around 11 in the morning, an hour before lunch, there's a knock at the (locked) entrance to their shared cell. Shirabe, the closest one to the door at the time, walks over to see what's up. She exchanges a few words with whoever's at the door, and Kirika hears the distinct _clack_ sound of the little metal slot in the door they sometimes use to pass items in and out of the cell.

"What did they want?" asks Kirika, sitting on the couch.

"Mn," says Shirabe, sounding slightly confused. "They said in the wreckage of our plane, they found this." She sits down next to Kirika, holding up a water-damaged envelope that has obviously been taped together.

An envelope? Why would they give them—

And then Kirika suddenly has a horrifying realization. What if… She cranes her neck forwards a little just to get a better look at the front of the envelope.

And sure enough, that's her handwriting on the front. " _Letter_ ", in familiar childish, messy scrawl.

With a yelp, she snatches the envelope out of Shirabe's hands and hides it behind her back. " _D-d-death!!_ " she shouts, shaking her head frantically. Oh god. This was only a few weeks ago, but she thinks she might actually die from the cringe.

"Kiri-chan?" says Shirabe, blinking in surprise.

"Kirika?" asks Maria, looking up from her book, on the other side of the couch. "What was that?"

Kirika's face is burning. Burning up in flames _._ Is it possible to die from cringe? She hopes not! She's not ready to confront this part of her past just yet. She laughs nervously. "U-um. Nothing. It's nothing?"

Maria turns to Shirabe, raising an eyebrow.

"Ogawa-san said it was something they found in the remains of our plane," says Shirabe. "He said their intelligence department didn't find anything of informational or strategic value in it, so he wanted to pass it to us, in case we wanted it."

" _The entire intelligence department!?_ " exclaims Kirika. She buries her face in her hands. "Please, just kill me now." Oh god, just how many people saw the cringe she poured into that letter?

"Kiri-chan, please don't even joke about that." Shirabe gently plucks the envelope out of Kirika's hands. "What is even on here?"

"Don't!" shouts Kirika, her voice rising to a frantic fervor, her hand outstretched.

Shirabe blinks, pausing just as she's about to take the letter out of the envelope. She clearly notices something desperate on Kirika's face. She hesitates for a moment, and then hands the envelope back. Kirika snatches it immediately.

Perhaps she snatched it back a bit too roughly, but Kirika doesn't want anyone else seeing this letter.

But at Shirabe's slightly hurt expression, Kirika feels slightly guilty. "S-sorry. It's kinda private."

Shirabe nods. "I understand."

Maria and Shirabe are still kinda staring at Kirika, so the blonde decides to elaborate. "It's… It's something I wrote a few weeks ago, back when… You know…" She shakes her head. "But it doesn't matter now. We're all here now, so this letter doesn't matter anymore." She shakes her head again, hiding the letter behind her back.

Maria just nods, slightly confused, before returning her attention to her book.

Shirabe looks slightly concerned, but she still nods, accepting the explanation. "Uh…" She hesitates for a moment, and then steps forward and gives Kirika a quick hug.

Kirika blinks in surprise. It's actually so rare for Shirabe to initiate hugs. It's such a surprise that she doesn't even react in time before the dark-haired girl pulls away.

"You know," says Shirabe, suddenly looking kind of shy.

Kirika just smiles. "…Thanks," she says. She's so grateful she has someone like Shirabe here who's willing to put up with her silly hang-ups.

That evening, while Shirabe's in the shower, Kirika lies in her bed on the top bunk, and peeking over the edge to make sure that Maria is occupied elsewhere, she sneakily pulls the letter out of where she stashed it underneath her mattress.

She pulls out the letter and glances over the words.

She closes her eyes and cringes. Hard.

This was the… farewell letter she wrote, back when she thought for sure that Finé's soul was within her, and that she wouldn't be around for much longer in this world.

She's not really sure who exactly she intended this letter for. At the time, she'd been keeping her worries to herself, so it was just getting bottled up. She just needed to put her thoughts to paper, and the contents of this letter was what came out.

Her handwriting is a mess, and she's not really good at this whole writing thing, either.

It's kind of a jumbled mess, to be honest.

The letter contains thoughts about her life, her memory loss, her new friends.

Perhaps on some level, she didn't want the others to be sad when (if?) they found her letter, so maybe that's why she tried to keep the tone pretty optimistic and upbeat. Saying thanks to the bits of happiness she experienced in her life, wishing that everyone in the entire world will be happy someday. Things like that.

Kirika sighs, folding up and tucking the letter back into the envelope. After staring at the tattered envelope in her hands for a moment, she then shoves it back under her mattress.

Honestly, her first impulse was to just rip it up to shreds, and then flush the shreds down the toilet.

But somehow, she just can't bring herself to throw this away.

_That would be too easy._

This cringe, all of the pain, all of her feelings surrounding this letter; she'll keep it as a reminder to herself.

So that she doesn't make the same mistakes again.


	4. Dark Oblivion

It takes Maria perhaps a couple of days of prison time before the full gravity of their situation really starts sinking in.

During all of the action back on Frontier, it really was just crisis after crisis after crisis.

Maria had been occupied with trying to gather phonic gain for Mom. She'd been occupied by the absurdity that was Hibiki, the Japanese government's star Symphogear wielder, just _yanking_ the Gungnir right off her. (What the heck.) She'd been occupied by the out-of-control Nephilim. She'd been occupied by trying to get out of the Noise-infested pocket universe that Solomon's Cane had dumped them all into.

But here in this prison cell, there's really not much else to do but just sit and wallow in her own thoughts.

She tries to remain upbeat and optimistic, because Shirabe and Kirika look to her for cues, and if she starts to lose it, they'll lose it, too.

For the time being, the girls seem to be treating this as some kind of vacation.

And to be honest, it kind of seems that way, doesn't it?

Japan's Division 2 were way more generous with their prison accommodations than Maria was expecting.

But…

Seeing her girls running around in the prison cell like this, chatting to each other cheerfully, playing simple inane party games to pass the time… all while dressed in these prison outfits, with the shackles around their wrists and ankles.

It's a deep, stabbing sensation deep inside her gut, every time she thinks about it.

For a long time, their eventual fate is up in limbo.

Genjuurou and the others keep Maria more informed of the goings-on in politics land, and it gives her more anxiety with every passing day. The United States wants the three of them extradited back to America to be tried for their crimes. The United Nations is also elbowing in with its demands. And meanwhile, Japan seems to have its own plans for them.

Does it really matter which country they face in the end, though? Because Maria's well aware of the atrocities they committed. As an adult (21 years old!) she really ought to have known better.

But no, she made the decisions that led to this prison cell, and she dragged those girls right down with her.

Unlike her, they're still young. They still have a future ahead of them.

Maria clenches a fist, glancing at where Shirabe and Kirika are cheerfully playing a game of chess over by the table.

 _It doesn't matter what happens to me,_ Maria thinks. _If anything else, I'll make sure they get out of this one alive._

Genjuurou-san and Ogawa-san come in to check on them almost daily, giving them updates on the situation. It seems like the Japanese government trying to negotiate for their release under probation. Meanwhile, the American government is demanding harsher punishment in retribution for the naval lives and ships lost at Frontier. It's a mess.

This was an international incident, after all. Eyes all over the world are watching the situation very closely.

"I promise you," Genjuurou tells her. "I will do everything in my power to make sure you and the girls get out of this."

"Why?" asks Maria, frowning. "Why are you willing to go so far for us, your former enemies?"

Genjuurou chuckles. "Because I've seen it. Hibiki-kun, Tsubasa, Chris-kun, all of us—we know you're not bad people. And you don't deserve this."

 _Do you really mean that?_ Something about it still kind of sits uneasily within Maria. Because he's saying all these pretty words, but it doesn't change the fact that Maria's hands are still stained with blood. This man is perhaps too naïve for his own good. One of these days, someone is going to take advantage of that trust.

Genjuurou's expression becomes more serious, as if noticing the conflicted expression on Maria's face. "We all make mistakes, Maria-kun. But you're still young."

"Me—young?" Maria laughs. "I'm twenty-one!"

"That's young!" says Genjuurou huffily, crossing his arms. "Younger than me."

"How old are you, anyway?"

"The point is, you all are still young, and you still have a long future ahead of you. What will you do with that time of yours?"

Maria glances down at her hands. "This time of mine…"

Genjuurou tells her to just hang tight for the time being. Negotiations can take a while, but considering the circumstances, He says he's pretty sure that they can figure something out for the girls. "So don't worry!" he says, grinning. "Just try to relax for the time being. "I know these accommodations aren't the best, but—"

Maria almost laughs out loud. Not the best? This is practically a luxury 5-star hotel, as far as she's concerned.

Still, it's kind of nice to just have some time where she just doesn't need to stress out about complicated long-term plans or facing the entire world. At this stage in things, everything is out of her control.

It's kind of freeing, in a way.

There's nothing she can do, so why worry about it?

(Actually, doesn't that mean she's regressing into her F.I.S. mindset where everything was out of her control, and she just accepted it?)

Maria frowns.

What does it mean to be free?

Anyway.

Eventually, Maria starts getting more to do. The talks with all of the various different powerful men in suits are a mentally exhausting ordeal.

But Maria's worst fears don't come true.

After weeks of talking with what feels like a new person almost every single day (why do so many of them wear sunglasses, even though they're indoors?), things finally start getting settled.

For some reason, the people from America suddenly reverse their position and start angling for a more forgiving stance towards the girls involved. (When Maria asks Genjuurou if he knows why they suddenly backpedalled on their position, he just winks and says, "My brother is very good at negotiating.")

But after talking more with the representative from America, Maria starts having a better idea of what's going on. It looks like the United States (or at least, certain factions from the United States) are interested in using Maria's diva clout to help cover up certain aspects of the Frontier incident.

So, in exchange for their future, Maria will have some more role-playing to do. Their outlook is slightly brighter now, if everything goes well, but nothing is set in stone yet.

But honestly.

A lone United Nations agent infiltrating the enemy organization?

Maria's not sure how she feels about painting their former group as an enemy organization. As much as they tried to make the world their enemy, their intentions were good, right?

Even though they caused so much harm.

Ahhh.

There's a lot of guilt and regret that still needs to be processed there.

Her first several nights in this prison cell were spent tossing and turning, her mind refusing to shut off.

And then, as the negotiations proceeded, and as their future prospects started looking brighter, Maria's gut slowly starts unclenching, and she starts relaxing a bit more.

The days start blurring together, and Maria slowly starts allowing herself to relax, because she's already worried herself to sleeplessness days on end, and it eventually gets to a point where the fear and guilt starts becoming numb, and it all just starts decaying into apathy.

When was the last time she had some leisure time where she could relax without really having to worry about anything?

Her entire childhood, brought up in that F.I.S. facility, was constant training, testing, medical examinations, and more. She didn't like the needles, and would be horribly stressed in the hours leading up to when she would need to get an injection. The walls were cold, white, sterile, and the staff there treated her and her friends similarly coldly. Maria honestly didn't feel like the F.I.S. staff saw the children there as actual people.

And then, after that whole thing with Mom and Ver happened and all of the orphans in F.I.S. were liberated, Mom placed the burden task of saving the Earth from the falling Moon on their shoulders almost immediately.

While Mom and the Doctor and Shirabe and Kirika worked behind the scenes to prepare the tech necessary to awaken Nephilim and Frontier, Maria was set to work on finding a way to gather the phonic gain necessary from the Japanese Symphogears.

Maria's meteoric rise as a pop diva sensation was honestly kind of unexpected.

Throughout the whole thing, she was thinking, _Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. This isn't right. I don't deserve to be here. I'm not good at all. Why am I even this popular? They're going to find out I'm a fraud._

She didn't voice any of her inner thoughts to Mom, who would simply look at the numbers Maria was pulling in and say, "Acceptable."

But Kazanari Tsubasa was a world-class artist, and probably wouldn't even entertain the thought of collabing with some cringe piss baby weakling. Or at least, that's what Maria thought at the time, anyway. So, Maria needed to become someone confident and self-assured.

(Maria recently heard from Hibiki-san that Tsubasa had actually gone to karaoke with her and Kohinata-san at one point. So maybe Tsubasa isn't as stuck-up as Maria first thought, though.)

"Fake it until you make it."

Serena had told her this at one point.

Maria's little sister had been the rising star of the F.I.S. orphanage; unlike the rest of them, she had an unnaturally high sync ratio even without using LiNKER.

The staff there devoted a lot of their attention and resources to Serena. She was pulled into more tests and experiments than Maria herself. They made Serena sing until her throat was hoarse. They pushed her Gear training until she collapsed to the floor in exhaustion. But even then, the girl held her head up high, in the hopes of eventually bringing everyone to a better tomorrow.

Maria was jealous of how confident and determined her sister was. The way she took on the challenges the staff threw at her without complaining or batting an eye. The way she kept on exceeding expectations.

But one late night, when Maria asked her about it, Serena shook her head and murmured, "I'm actually really scared I might break one day." The experiments were pushing her body harder and harder, beyond the limits of what would be considered healthy for a teenage girl. But for the time being, she was keeping up, and that was enough.

As long as she remained useful, the staff will continue to treat her and the rest of the children well.

That was what she believed.

And so, Serena had pushed through her doubts and put on the façade of confidence, even if her conviction was still shaky inside.

"They're not all bad people, you know," Serena said, glancing up at Maria.

Maria raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"I mean," said Serena, waving a hand. "I really wish some of them would do something more _substantial_ than sneak me chocolates or treats when I ask. But some of them really do believe that doing this will help the human race against supernatural disasters like the Noise. Or so they say, anyway."

"…Huh."

"It's not like I really have a choice in the matter, though."

Maria chuckled humourlessly. "I really wish they'd let us go outside more."

Serena hugged her knees, her hands shaking slightly. " _I hate them so much._ What do they think I am, some kind of expensive toy? Do this. Do that. Acceptable. Below nominal. Unsatisfactory. Be awake for tomorrow's training. I seriously want to—" She took a deep breath, calming herself. "I'm okay, I'm okay."

Ah.

Maria blinks.

She's still staring at the same page of the book that she's reading. The words aren't registering in her mind. She's too distracted.

Her thoughts keep turning to Serena, huh.

If Serena had still been alive, what would she have made of the whole Frontier debacle?

Would she have gone forward with their renegade plan to stop the moon from falling?

Would she have taken an alternate route, seeking out the Japanese Symphogears, even though at the time, they had all thought the Japanese Symphogears to be their enemy?

Maria frowns, reaching to her pocket to touch Serena's broken relic out of habit, before realizing that the Airgetlam relic is currently being securely stored elsewhere at the moment.

She lets out a shaky sigh.

"M-Maria?" asks a voice.

Maria looks up, glancing over at where Shirabe and Kirika are playing. It was Kirika who spoke up, but Shirabe is also looking on with concern.

"You haven't turned that page in your book for over an hour now," says Kirika, fidgeting slightly. "You okay?"

Maria blinks in surprise. She glances at the clock. Has it really been that long? She sets down her book, forcing a smile. "I'm okay, I'm okay."

"Oh…" Shirabe and Kirika exchange a glance.

"Um!" says Shirabe, leaning forward. "Do you want to play with us?"

Maria glances at the table. "Isn't chess a two-player game?"

"We can play something else!" says Kirika, standing up abruptly and turning to the shelf. "There are all sorts of games here that we can play! Let's play!"

"Yeah!" says Shirabe, forcing a smile. "Join us!"

Maria lets out a sigh. Even though she was trying to keep her worries to herself, it looks like the two girls picked up on it. As someone who's older than them, she really needs to do better.

She smiles, getting up from her seat. "Sure. Let's pick something out, shall we?"


	5. ...Falling to pieces

The meals they're getting here in this holding facility are surprisingly high in quality. Division 2 certainly doesn't skimp on their food budget for their prisoners, by the looks of it!

But if their typical meals can be considered high quality, then the special New Years' meals that they're being given must be gourmet feasts in comparison.

They had year-end soba yesterday, and now they have a double-layered New Years' meal today.

Seriously, what is this food??

It's too good!

What the heck.

Even in Maria's (brief) idol days, she'd never had anything this good.

"I'm so glad," says Shirabe, "that we surrendered ourselves to these people." She takes another bite of her dinner.

"That's for sure!" Kirika pipes in cheerfully.

"Now, now," says Maria, blowing on her food slightly (she's kind of scared of burning her tongue) before popping it into her mouth. She waves her chopsticks. "Don't eat too quickly. You'll get a stomachache."

"Right, right, okay _Mom_ ," says Kirika, smiling good-naturedly.

"Now that Mom's gone," says Shirabe, "does that mean Maria is our Mom now?"

"D-Don't be absurd!" says Maria. "I'm only twenty-one. I'm way too young to be a mother!" She pauses, frowning. "And I'm a terrible choice for being a mother, too. I… I don't always make the best decisions."

Shirabe and Kirika exchange a glance.

"But Maria…" says Kirika, looking as if she's about to dispute that point.

"That's for sure," interrupts Shirabe, smiling sagely.

"Wha?" The two of them stare owlishly at Shirabe.

"I mean, I was the first one who decided to turn to these people, right?" asks Shirabe, taking another bite of her food. "I was the first one to defect. And now look at where we are. With this amazing food. So clearly that means I make the best decisions."

"Then you can be our Mom!" exclaims Kirika, smiling cheerfully, patting Shirabe on the shoulder.

"Huh? No way." Shirabe shakes her head. "If I'm your mother, then I won't be able to marry—" She abruptly cuts off the rest of her sentence.

Shirabe and Kirika exchange a glance, and then look away, their cheeks reddening.

"Ah," says Kirika. "R-right."

"M-mm…" says Shirabe, flustered.

Maria glances back and forth between Shirabe and Kirika. H…huh? Did she miss something??

Anyway.

They eat their fill of food, and then some.

They almost have trouble finishing it all, because there was so much.

It's truly a feast for the ages.

"Oooog," groans Kirika, falling into bed after the meal. "I ate so much. I just wanna sleep…"

"Definitely not!" says Maria, putting her dishes into the slot receptacle for the facility keepers to retrieve later. "If you lie down right after eating, you're going to have digestion problems! Walk around for a bit, at least."

Kirika articulates a long, drawn-out sequence of incomprehensible sounds.

"I think I overate," Shirabe says from the couch, smiling sheepishly, patting her belly. "I never had the largest appetite to begin with, and—" She pauses suddenly, covering her mouth. She swallows thickly, and then takes a deep breath. "Ah. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little."

"Nooo, don't waste the good food!" protests Kirika.

"It's okay, I swallowed it back down almost immediately."

"Oh phew!" says Kirika. "Thank goodness."

Maria frowns, rushing over to Shirabe, hovering over her in concern. "Are you okay? You don't feel ill?"

"No, I'm fine," says Shirabe, waving her hands defensively. "I just feel a bit bloated because I ate too much, that's all. I should be fine after it digests a bit."

"I've never felt this full in my life!" says Kirika, patting her tummy.

"If... If you say so," Maria says.

It's… fine to indulge themselves like this just this once, isn't it?

Later that evening, stuffed with food, the three of them feel a bit more lethargic than usual.

Kirika is slumped on the couch, fiddling idly with a puzzle from the shelf.

Maria is sitting next to Kirika on the couch, reading a book.

Shirabe went into the bathroom a short while ago, so she's not in the room with them at the moment.

After a few minutes, Maria and Kirika hear the sound of the toilet flushing from the washroom.

Maria and Kirika continue their aimlessly idle activities.

The toilet flushes again.

And again.

And then… they hear the sound of someone using toilet plunger.

Maria and Kirika exchange a glance.

"Oh, she probably clogged it again," says Kirika.

"Ah, that happens sometimes, doesn't it," says Maria, making an awkward face.

Shirabe doesn't go to the washroom particularly often, and her diet didn't really contain that many fresh fruits and vegetables. So even back in F.I.S., it was not uncommon for her to accidentally clog up the toilet once in a while.

But it's not a big deal.

"Good thing they left us a toilet plunger next to the toilet for us," says Maria.

Kirika nods. "Exactly!"

"We wouldn't want to trouble the Division 2 staff on New Years' Day, after all," says Maria. "They're probably resting and enjoying their holidays. With the hard work that they do, they definitely deserve it."

More plunging sounds from the washroom.

Toilet flushing sounds.

Even more plunging sounds.

Mote toilet flushing sounds.

More plunging sounds.

More toilet flushing sounds.

This continues for several minutes before Kirika hesitantly gets up from the couch. "I'm… going to check in on her," she says, smiling nervously.

Maria glances up from her book. The looming thought of possibly being unable to use the toilet until it's unclogged is kind of distracting, so she hadn't really made much progress with reading. "Okay," she says.

"Shirabe?" says Kirika, knocking on the washroom door. "Shirabe, are all right?"

"I… I'm fine," says Shirabe from inside the washroom, her voice slightly strained. "The toilet's just a bit blocked up, that's all."

"Mind if I help?"

"…Uh, sure…"

The washroom door clicks open.

Maria tries to focus on her book.

Splashing, plunging sounds from the washroom.

Toilet flushing sounds.

More splashing and plunging.

More toilet flushing.

"The water's not going down, death," says Kirika.

"Mmmmm," says Shirabe.

More plunging.

Flush.

Maria lets out a sigh, putting a bookmark on the page and closing her book. She's not going to be able to focus like this.

She gets up from the couch and walks over to the slightly ajar washroom door. She knocks on it. "Do you need help?" she asks.

"Maria!" says Kirika, opening the door wider, smiling cheerfully. "It's really stuck this time!"

"Let me see?"

Taking a step into the washroom, Maria surveys the scene, trying to get a grasp for what the situation is in here. The plunger is resting in the toilet, the handle sticking up. The water is clear. That means everything must have already gone down; the blockage might be further back up the pipes, then. That's not good.

Shirabe is staring blankly at the toilet. She glances back at Maria and then awkwardly shuffles aside, gesturing towards the toilet plunger handle. "S-sorry," she says.

"It's okay, it happens," says Maria. She frowns, staring at the toilet water. "The water's going down slightly, at least."

Shirabe nods. "It's very slow."

Maria rolls up her sleeves, and then reaches over and flushes the toilet.

The water rises up, up, filling the toilet bowl all the way to the brim. Then, as the toilet reservoir tank in the back noisily starts refilling with water, the water in the toilet bowl just stays at that level, remaining very full.

Maria pushes the plunger into the toilet and then gives it a good, aggressive plunge, causing water splash up loudly.

"Ooh, strong," says Kirika, taking a step back.

Shirabe takes a step back too, to try and keep out of range of the splash.

Maria continues plunging aggressively, water splashing everywhere.

The water level very slowly, slowly, slinks lower and lower, until finally, after about a minute or so, the water is almost completely gone from the bowl.

Then, the water at the bottom of the bowl gurgles slightly, bubbling as a bit of water starts filling back.

But it's still very slow.

Maria pulls the flush handle.

The water rises up, filling up to near the brim. And then stays there.

Maria clicks her tongue in frustration. "Still clogged, huh." Still, she won't give up. She puts the plunger to work again, giving the water in the bowl a good set of aggressive plunges.

As she works at it, the water level gradually creeps lower and lower, until the bowl is empty again.

Maria pulls the flush handle again.

The water fills up all the way to the top and stays there, _again._

Maria lets out a sound of frustration.

"It's really stuck back there, huh!" remarks Kirika.

"Yeah…" says Maria, frowning. She grips the toilet plunger tightly, and then starts plunging some more.

Flush.

Plunge.

Flush.

Plunge.

Flush.

After about 15 minutes, even Kirika's optimistic smile is starting to falter. "It's… it's _really_ stuck, isn't it?"

Maria stares blankly at the toilet, the water still stubbornly refusing to go down in a timely manner. "Yeah…" Dammit. They won't be able to use the toilet like this.

Well, the water is going down slightly, so fluids might still be okay. But the other one…

"Maybe we should ask the Division 2 staff for help," Shirabe suggests.

"No need," says Maria, raising her hand. "It's just a clogged toilet. There's no need trouble them. I'm sure I've already loosened it up quite a bit. Just a little more!" She flushes the toilet again.

The water in the bowl fills up all the way to the top, and then stays there.

"I think… Is it starting to go down a bit quicker now?" asks Kirika, peering hopefully at the toilet.

"No, I don't think it's changed," says Shirabe, frowning.

Maria plunges the toilet aggressively, water splashing up even more violently than before.

And then she pulls the flush handle, and then the water fills up all the way to the brim, and _still_ stays there.

Maria grits her teeth. Her arms are so tired now.

The three of them stand there in silence for a brief moment.

"Can I try for a bit?" asks Kirika, perhaps noticing Maria's exhaustion.

"O-oh, sure," says Maria, feeling slightly frazzled. She passes the toilet plunger handle to Kirika.

As Kirika plunges away at the toilet with shouts of "death!", Shirabe frowns. "I think this plunger isn't very well suited for this toilet in the first place. The bottom of the toilet is round, but the plunger looks like it's designed for a flat surface. So it's harder to get a good seal on the bottom."

"Is that so?..." murmurs Maria, watching as Kirika continues plunging even as the water level very slowly dips down, down, down, until the bowl is empty.

Kirika pulls the flush handle.

The water fills the bowl up to the brim, _and then stays there._

"This is a stubborn one!" declares Kirika, wiping her forehead with her arm.

Kirika keeps trying.

Several more minutes pass.

Kirika lets out a frustrated huff, dropping the plunger into the toilet and throwing up her arms in dismay. "This isn't getting anywhere!" she exclaims.

Shirabe frowns. She rolls up her sleeves, reaches over pulling out a few lengths of toilet paper from the toilet paper roll next to the toilet, and then wraps it around her hand. "The blockage should be further up the pipe, right?"

"That does look to be the case," says Maria. She blinks. "Shirabe, what are you _doing?_ "

Shirabe carefully sets the plunger aside and then dips her toilet-paper wrapped hand into the water, sticking her arm in and trying to reach up the pipe in the back. "If I can poke it loose somehow…"

"Shirabe, that's _gross_!" shouts Kirika, looking horrified.

"I mean, it's my poop, so it shouldn't be that big of a deal." She tries to push her hand back as far as she can reach. She blinks. "Ah."

"Shirabe!?" exclaims Kirika.

"Shirabe?" asks Maria, concerned. "You didn't get your arm stuck, did you?"

Shirabe lets out a sigh, and then pulls her hand out of the toilet. She pulls the soaked toilet paper off her hand and discards it into the toilet. "I couldn't feel anything back there. The blockage must be further up than I can reach."

"Oh…" murmurs Kirika. She blinks, forcing a smile. "But that's a relief! At least you didn't have to touch poop!"

"If I could reach, then we would have had a better chance at unclogging it, though…" murmurs Shirabe, frowning at her hand.

Maria taps Shirabe's shoulder. "Wash your hands."

"R-right."

As Shirabe lathers her hands and arms thoroughly with soap in the sink, Maria and Kirika continue staring helplessly at the toilet.

Kirika reaches over and pulls the flush handle.

The water fills the bowl up to the brim, and then stays near that level.

"Darn," mutters Kirika.

"If the blockage is further up the back, then we would need an auger of some sort, yes?" asks Shirabe, continuing to thoroughly wash her hands. "M-maybe we should ask the staff here at this facility, then. Surely they have one."

"N-no!" stammers Maria. She shakes her head. "It's just a little blockage. The water's even going down a little, right? I'm sure we just need to keep at it a bit more, and then it'll be unclogged. There's no need to bother them for something as trivial as this."

Kirika nods frantically. "We!" She pushes the plunger into the toilet. "Almost! Got! This!" She continues plunging.

She pulls the flush handle.

The water fills all the way to the top, and then stays there.

"Why are you so stubborn!?" Kirika shouts at the toilet.

Shirabe dries her hands. "Can I try?" she asks, reaching out for the plunger.

Kirika, clearly frustrated, hands the plunger to Shirabe.

Shirabe tries plunging the toilet and flushing a few more times.

The toilet is still as clogged as it was before.

"Let me do it," says Maria, reaching out for the plunger.

Maria aggressively plunges the toilet, splashing water loudly.

But after several more plunge-and-flush cycles, there's no visible progress.

Maria lets out a sound of annoyance. "This damn clog!" She lets out a sound of frustration.

They stare blankly at the toilet for a few moments.

Maria turns to Shirabe. "Can't you go to the toilet more frequently? If you hold it in for so long, this is the sort of thing that will happen!"

"Huh?" Shirabe blinks frantically, taken aback. "I-I only go when I feel like it, and I didn't feel like it earlier."

"You need to go every day, Shirabe!"

"B-but, I'm pretty sure that anywhere from 3 times a day to once every 3 days is normal…"

"Even so!" says Maria.

"Hey, it's not Shirabe's fault!" exclaims Kirika, stepping between Maria and Shirabe. "It's…It's Division 2's fault for not having strong enough toilets!"

Maria stares at Kirika, standing defensively in front of Shirabe. Maria then closes her eyes, and lets out a long sigh. "I know, I know," she mutters under her breath. "Sorry," she mutters. "I'm just a bit stressed right now."

Shirabe and Kirika murmur sympathetic sounds.

Maria grits her teeth, grips the toilet plunger, and then plunges away at the toilet even more aggressively. "Why! Won't! You! Go! Down!?"

She flushes the toilet.

The water still fills to the top and doesn't go down.

Maria growls in frustration.

"If… If we can't get this unclogged, we should probably ask them for help," murmurs Shirabe, looking at the toilet. "At this point, we may be doing more harm than good. Surely the staff will know what to do."

Maria continues plunging the toilet wordlessly, her mouth set in a firm line.

"Maria…" says Kirika.

Maria continues plunging and flushing wordlessly.

"Maria?..." says Shirabe, looking concerned.

"We can't just keep asking more of them!" shouts Maria.

Shirabe and Kirika jolt slightly at the suddenness of Maria's outburst.

Maria drops the toilet plunger into the toilet, clenching her fists. "They've already done so much for us," says Maria, blinking rapidly. "Even when we were their enemies, they were way more forgiving to us than we were deserving of. Even though we let the Doctor run wild with his plans, and even though we did all those horrible things…"

She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. "They gave us a warm and dry place to sleep. They gave us warm running water. They even gave us this amazing food. There are countries out there who want us executed for our crimes, but Division 2 and their allies are negotiating on our behalf. Even we did everything wrong, and we don't deserve this…"

Shirabe and Kirika look slightly alarmed.

"Executed?" repeats Kirika, horrified.

Oh. That's right, she was trying to keep that a secret from these two. Maria shakes her head, wiping her eyes with her forearm. "Don't worry too much about that. It shouldn't be on the table anymore. Our allies here made sure of that. But if we can't even unclog a toilet without going to them for help…"

Kirika blinks rapidly, reaching forward and grabbing Maria's hands. "I get it. I get it!"

Shirabe grimaces, furtively wiping her eyes with the back of her sleeve.

Maria, Kirika, and Shirabe continue to take turns trying to unclog the toilet.

Time slowly ticks away.

Half an hour.

An hour.

An hour and half.

Soon, they've been desperately trying to unclog the toilet for almost two hours, and there's still no progress.

"Please," Maria murmurs under her breath, starting to feel desperate. "I'll atone for my crimes. I'll dedicate the rest of my life to community work. I'll donate all of my money to charity. I'll… I'll…"

"I won't be selfish ever again." says Kirika. "I won't get in the way. I won't be a burden. I'll… I'll eat all my vegetables, even the ones I don't like!"

"I'll apologize to everyone," murmurs Shirabe. "For our foolishness. Hibiki-san, Chris-san, Tsubasa-san, Genjuurou-san, Ogawa-san… I'll… I'll do something to make up for it."

"I'll live frugally from now on!" says Kirika. "I'll live life as a hermit. Please!"

"I'll do anything," says Maria, feeling desperate. "Just please unclog already! I'm begging you!"

The toilet doesn't respond to any of their words, though. It still remains stubbornly clogged.

Maria laughs humourlessly, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "This is dumb. This is so dumb." She sniffles. "Why am I crying over a clogged toilet?"

"Maria…" murmurs Shirabe.

They stare blankly at the toilet. Maria's arms feel tremendously tired now.

"Fuck," says Maria, feeling utterly defeated. "What do we do now?"

"We have to get it unclogged somehow," says Shirabe, frowning. "I hope it hasn't hardened while we were doing all this. Do we have any chemical reagents that might… help break up the blockages?"

"No way they'd trust prisoners with something like that," says Kirika.

"Then…" Shirabe glances around the washroom, clearly grasping at straws. "Shampoo? Would shampoo help? Or, what about just hot water?"

"I don't have any other ideas," says Kirika, looking glum.

A long moment of silence.

Shirabe hesitantly goes to the sink, staring at it for a moment. Then, she reaches out for her rinsing cup, setting her toothbrush aside. She turns on the tap and fills the cup with hot water.

She carries it over to the toilet and dumps it in. She then goes back to the sink and refills the cup, pours it in the toilet again, and then back and forth, back and forth; filling the toilet with hot water, one small cupful at a time.

"And then, let it sit for a while?" suggests Shirabe, as she continues pouting the cups of hot water into the toilet bowl.

A couple of minutes pass as Shirabe continues to pour in the hot water.

Then, holding her breath, she pulls the flush handle…

And it's still clogged. The toilet bowl fills all the way up to the brim and then stays there.

"Frick," Kirika mutters under her breath.

"Maybe plunge some more?" mutters Shirabe, taking the plunger and sticking it in as firmly as possible, continuing to plunge. Her plunging isn't nearly as aggressive as Maria's, and there's almost no splashing.

"What do we do?" murmurs Kirika. "What if I need to poop? Oh god oh god."

Maria covers her face. "I really, really don't want to ask even more of them, after they've done so much for us. I don't want to owe them more." She grimaces. "But I suppose we have to…"

Shirabe pulls the flush handle again. The water goes down. "Uh," she stares, staring at the toilet.

Maria and Kirika hold their breath, not really believing their eyes.

Shirabe waits for the water reservoir in the back of the toilet to fill up, and then she flushes again.

The water smoothly goes down right away.

"Oh thank god," says Maria, feeling lightheaded with relief.

"I'm sorry for doubting you, God!" exclaims Kirika, clasping her hands together. "I'm a believer now! I'll live a virtuous life from now on, I promise!"

Shirabe just smiles, looking faintly dizzy.

Maria closes her eyes and lets out a long breath. DEAR GOD, that was stressful. She thinks this alone took five years off her lifespan. She's going to have to lie down after this.

"S-sorry about all that," murmurs Shirabe.

"It's not your fault," says Maria, stepping over and wrapping Shirabe and Kirika in a big hug. "It's not your fault. None of it is."

"Ah, be careful, I'm still holding the plunger," says Shirabe, awkwardly holding the plunger away so that it doesn't touch either Maria or Kirika.

Kirika giggles, stepping back, wiping her eyes with her sleeves. "I'm all sweaty and gross now."

"Yeah, I still need to shower," says Shirabe.

"Can I shower with you?" exclaims Kirika, her eyes brightening up.

"Take turns," says Maria, pointing at the shower stall. "This is only big enough for one of us at a time. So Shirabe first, then Kirika, then I can shower after."

"Oooog," says Kirika, pouting. "Fine."

Maria shakes her head. Why on earth does Kirika want to shower with Shirabe so much? She doesn't understand it. This isn't like back in that hospital they camped at or back in F.I.S. where all they had were the communal showers. They finally have a comfortable, private shower stall designed for one person at a time.

But anyway.

As Maria and Kirika step out of the washroom to let Shirabe shower in peace, Maria thinks about how she's definitely going to have to be more careful going forward, because she's pretty sure that getting that toilet unclogged just consumed all of her luck for the next 13 years.


	6. ...Rainbows, the wind, time, the sun

Kirika would say she's started getting used to this relaxing lifestyle as a prisoner of Division 2.

What's there to not like?

The beds are soft, the food is good, and they're free to do anything they want all day long (well, anything within the confines of the cell, in any case).

Would she want to live here forever?

Well, to be honest, she's willing to admit that she's starting to miss seeing the sun. And trees. And fresh air. And wind. And rain. And anything outdoors in general.

But hey, you can't have your cake and eat it too!

Life is what you make of it, so you should look on the bright side!

And so that's the attitude that Kirika tries to wear on her sleeve.

Nevertheless…

One day, when Maria walks into the cell with Genjuurou-san and Ogawa-san not too far behind with a triumphant but relieved expression on her face, Kirika allows her hopes to be raised a little.

"It's done!" says Maria, grinning. "We're going to be released!"

"Really!?" exclaims Kirika, jumping out of her bed and running up to Maria. "Tell us more!"

Shirabe just glances at Maria with an apprehensive but hopeful expression.

"Well, not right away," says Maria. "But soon. You two are familiar with Lydian Academy, right?"

 _I mean, we had to memorize all the blueprints and floorplans of that school when we went to try and steal the Symphogear's relics_. "In passing, yeah," says Kirika. "Why?"

"You two will be enrolling there next spring," says Maria, smiling. "And you'll be released just a couple of days before that."

"Whoa, really?" says Kirika, her eyes widening. She can't remember the last time she went to a proper school. She can't believe it's actually something she's really looking forward to now, but it is! "That's great!"

"There will be some conditions upon your release, of course," says Ogawa, showing the girls a clipboard with a think bundle of forms—a weighty stack of papers with Maria's signature at the bottom. "You'll be under probation for the first several years or so."

Shirabe steps forward and flips through the pages, her eyes flickering back and forth as she skims through the fine text. "In short, we'll have to report in regularly with our probation officer," she says. "And avoid getting in trouble with the law. Among other things…"

"That's easy!" exclaims Kirika.

"Mm," says Shirabe, continuing to skim through the forms.

"So, we're starting in spring?" asks Kirika, counting the months on her fingers. "As in the beginning of the school year? In April? Oh, that's still a bit far away from now, isn't it."

Genjuurou smiles sadly. "I wish we could have gotten you out sooner. But this was the furthest we could push the negotiations."

"No, no, you've already done more than enough for us, Genjuurou-san," says Maria. "Don't apologize!"

"So, we're going to Lydian," says Shirabe.

"Shirabe and I are going to be in the same year, right?" asks Kirika. "Right?"

"I believe so," says Ogawa.

Kirika lets out a shout. "Yeah! All right!"

Shirabe just smiles slightly. Then, she frowns. "What about you, though, Maria?" asks Shirabe, looking slightly concerned. "I think you're a bit too old to be going to a high school…"

"Hey Shirabe, don't judge!" huffs Kirika. "People can miss grades and be a bit older than the other students, that's fine! Maria, you have nothing to worry about! You'll fit right in! You're young at heart!"

Maria smiles. "As much as I'd like the chance to experience the high school life that I never got a chance to… That isn't what I will be doing."

Kirika's smile falters slightly. "Then… Then, what will you be doing? You _are_ going to be released with us, right? You're not stay in this cell, are you?" Her gut starts clenching with anxiety. Because Maria staying in prison if it meant that the two younger girls got it… that _would_ be something Maria would do, right?

"Not to worry," says Maria, smiling. "I'm being released, too. The U.N. has separate plans for me."

"The U.N.?" asks Kirika.

"Well," says Ogawa, coughing slightly. "Division 2 has rebranded slightly. We're now S.O.N.G., a formal division for responding to supernatural affairs, working directly under the jurisdiction of the United Nations."

Kirika and Shirabe blink owlishly.

"Whoa," says Shirabe. "Neat."

"I, uh, I didn't really understand most of that," says Kirika, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly, "but S.O.N.G. sounds like a pretty neat name of an organization! I approve!"

"Thank you!" says Genjuurou, flashing a thumbs up. "I chose the name myself."

"Of course you did," says Maria, smiling, but rolling her eyes slightly.

"So, Maria," says Shirabe. "What _will_ you be doing, then? As a condition for your release?"

"Well, to fully embrace the backstory they made up for me, it looks like I'll be doing more charity concert events," says Maria. "As well as doing things like answering to press conferences and making certain statements according to their direction."

"Oh," says Kirika. She tilts her head slightly. "Well I dunno about that second and third part, but Maria, you've always liked doing concerts, right? That's great, then!"

"I…" Maria says, her smile slightly strained. "I suppose."

"All right!" says Kirika, grinning. "Just a couple more months, and then we're out of here!"

With a proper day to look forward to, Kirika thinks she'll have an extra little spring in her steps now. But that day is still a good length of time away, so she wishes time could pass just a little bit quicker.

They do get one surprise though, to break up the monotony of their everyday lives here in this prison cell.

A few days later, there's a sudden surprise visit from the Division 2 Symphogear wielders… or, that's right, it's S.O.N.G. now (she'll have to get used to that). Kirika blinks in surprise at the four visitors standing in their prison cell. Unexpected, for sure, but a happy surprise! She's honestly a bit touched that these girls are still thinking of them.

Hibiki-san, the Gungnir wielder.

Kirika still remembers that moment on that run-down street when she and Shirabe decided to sing their swan songs, egged on to do so by the doctor. Hibiki-san, this girl in front of them, absorbed all the phonic overload of their melodies and took them into herself, causing herself so much pain in the process.

This girl… almost died.

But these other girls, too.

Tsubasa-san.

Chris-san.

Miku-san.

Kirika still vividly remembers the fight on that ship, Miku moving around robotically and stiffly with the doctor's nasty mind-control thing screwed into the back of her head.

A Symphogear that can erase Symphogears…

Despite having 0 days of prior Symphogear training, this Miku managed to give the other wielders a great deal of trouble.

That enormous energy blast, with Shirabe directly in the crosshairs…

And this was right after Kirika had (stupidly) injected Shirabe with the doctor's Anti-Linker. So Shirabe had been unable to defend herself.

Kirika was too far away to do anything, so thinking back upon it, Shirabe really could have died back then, in that moment. Kirika thinks it was honestly a bit of a miracle that Shirabe survived at all, given that she was just sitting there unprotected, without a Symphogear. If Chris hadn't jumped in at that moment to block the blast with her reflectors…

Kirika swallows thickly.

Though… if Division 2 hadn't arrived when they did, Kirika would have already taken Shirabe to safety. So it's kind of Division 2's fault too.

But it's kind of Kirika's fault too, for just standing by and letting the doctor summon that Noise swarm in the first place. Where Noise are to be found, Symphogear wielders aren't too far behind. She knew that. In their schemes, they actually actively exploited this fact.

Noise are horrific creatures only capable of destruction.

Kirika's faintly relieved that Solomon's Cane is no more. So that no one can make use of such horrific creatures ever again.

Kirika bites her lip, clenching her fist.

"Congratulations on your release!" Hibiki is saying. "I'm looking forward to seeing you around in Lydian!"

"We'll be your senpai," Chris says, smiling. "So be sure to come to us if you need help with anything."

"Y-yeah," says Kirika. "Right." She blinks, pointing at the box full of pastry treats that Hibiki and Miku are holding. "Wait. Are those for us?"

"Of course!" says Hibiki. "Why else would we carry this much food all the way out here?"

"Happy Valentine's Day," adds Miku, smiling.

Shirabe blinks. "Wait, today's Valentine's Day?"

"Valentine's Day?" says Kirika. "That's the 14th, isn't it?" She counts on her fingers. "11, 12, 13, 14… It really is! Geez, it's really easy to lose track of the passing of time in this place, huh."

"Ah, it's true," says Maria, blinking. "I'd completely forgotten. We never really celebrated Valentine's Day back in our orphanage, you know. That's why after Mom took us out of that place, I was finally looking forward to going out and buying chocolates for everyone. But now that we're in this situation…"

"Ah," says Miku, nodding in sympathy.

"Urgh, noooo, you're gonna make me sad here!" says Hibiki, her face scrunching up with a mix of conflicting emotions.

"Er…" Shirabe says hesitantly, reaching out a hand. "P…Please, don't worry? We'll be out of here soon enough. That alone is good enough for us."

Hibiki just nods, still looking slightly upset.

"Hmm," says Tsubasa, looking at Maria and Kirika and Shirabe closely. She smiles. "The three of you have gotten… rather rounded."

Kirika and Shirabe wince.

"It's… it's because we've been given so much good food here," Shirabe says sheepishly.

"I'll go on a diet," murmurs Kirika, poking her fingers together.

"Oi, senpai," Chris snaps at Tsubasa. "That's rude, you know."

"What?" asks Tsubasa, looking genuinely clueless. "I just pointed out something I observed, is something wrong with that?"

"Pointing out a girl's weight—" Chris lets out a frustrated sound, looking defeated. "Geez, how is it that even _I_ even a better grip on social cues than caption dense here?" She jabs a thumb at Tsubasa.

"Captain dense?" says Tsubasa, blinking. "Me?"

"Now, now," says Miku, smiling at the three prisoners. "You're all still growing girls. You need the nutrients, so there's nothing wrong with eating more! Ah, when I was in track and field, my gym teacher actually really scolded us for dieting too unhealthily. She was like, 'What is this, lunch for ants? You're not going to be able to run your best if you're starving yourselves!'"

"You're on the track and field team?" asks Shirabe, blinking. "Actually, that explains a lot."

Kirika blinks. _That's right…_ Thinking back on it, at the end of the Frontier incident, it was this girl in front of them, Miku, who performed the final saving throw. This girl took the Noise-summoning relic, Solomon's Cane, and heaved it into the Noise pocket universe to seal it off, just in the nick in the time. "That's right, how did you do that, anyway?" she asks.

"That was a superhuman throw," remarks Shirabe.

"You threw it, like, hundreds of metres into the air!" exclaims Kirika.

"I don't know what kind of training Division 2—I mean, S.O.N.G. put you all through," says Maria, crossing her arms, "but it certainly is very impressive."

"Er no, I'm not officially a part of S.O.N.G.," says Miku, waving her hands sheepishly. "I'm more of, I guess, a civilian consultant. And I'm not on the track team anymore. I quit that in middle school."

"Oh," says Shirabe.

"I never doubted Miku for a moment!" says Hibiki, grinning. "I knew she could do it!"

Miku just smiles, her cheeks slightly flushed.

"But how _did_ you do that, anyway?" asks Hibiki, turning to Miku. "To be honest, I just thought you were only going to just pick up the relic to use it. I didn't expect you to actually throw the darned thing into the portal like a… like a, you know that long stick throwing thingy in track and field?..."

"…A javelin?" says Chris.

"Yeah, that!" exclaims Hibiki. She giggles.

"Ah," says Miku, looking flustered. She glances away. "Well…"

"Well, it worked out, didn't it?" says Hibiki, putting her hands behind her head. "Thanks to you, that suuuuper annoying Solomon's Cane is gone for good now! So we don't need to worry about Noise threats anymore!"

"Mm," says Miku, nodding. She shuffles awkwardly. "I don't really know why I did what I did, to be honest. It just seemed right. It was like…" She holds her hands out in front of her struggling to find the words. "It was almost like I got a sense of what the relic wanted? In my head? But not exactly?" She shakes her head in confusion. "It's hard to explain. I just knew I could do it, somehow."

Shirabe nods. "Ah. It's kind of like that with our Symphogears, isn't it?"

Tsubasa points at Shirabe. "Indeed, Tsukuyomi!"

Chris just grunts, nodding.

"Ye," says Kirika, flashing a peace sign. "I kind of got that with Igalima, too! Back when we were still at F.I.S., they usually stored our relics separately from us. But when they went to give us our relics for training, I somehow just _knew_ which one was Igalima, even though those necklaces all looked the same!"

Shirabe nods. "Me too."

"Relatable," says Maria, nodding. "I'm pretty sure it was like that with Serena, too."

"Ah," says Miku, blinking. "I see."

"So then, with Solomon's Cane," says Shirabe, glancing up thoughtfully. "It was mainly the relic that covered the distance?"

"Well, I suppose that makes sense," says Miku. "I mean, my arm isn't that strong. I'm only human, after all." She chuckles awkwardly.

"Only human…" says Shirabe. "I suppose. But that reminds me. What exactly is up with Ogawa-san?"

"Ogawa-san?" repeats Miku. "What do you mean?"

"Oh right, Ogawa-san!" says Hibiki. She nods. "Yeah, he's pretty cool. What about him?"

"When he carried me away from the battle scene," Shirabe says slowly, looking as if she's having trouble believing her own words. "He was literally… running on the water." She pauses for a moment, looking utterly puzzled. "Was there some kind of trick to that, or…?"

"Oh no," says Tsubasa. "Ogawa-san can do that. He's a ninja."

"Yup!" says Hibiki, as if that explains everything. "He's a ninja!"

"I… I see…" says Shirabe.

Kirika just laughs nervously. "Okay…"

Maria closes her eyes. "Division 2 is seriously scary," she mutters under her breath.

"What was that?" asks Tsubasa. "I didn't quite hear—"

"Nothing!" Maria says, louder.

"So!" says Hibiki, setting the box of biscuits and treats on the table. "Are we going to start eating these, or—"

"Hibiki!" says Miku, swatting Hibiki's arm. "These are a present for the girls. You can't just eat all the treats yourself!"

Hibiki lets of a whimper. "But Miku…"

Everyone has a good laugh about that.

Maria walks over to Tsubasa and starts making idle chit-chat with the blue-haired idol, asking about what's been happening recently on the concert scene.

Chris just hangs in the background, content to listen in passively on the various conversations going on from afar.

Hibiki and Miku are laughing and exchanging some words.

Kirika smiles, shuffling up close to Shirabe. "Those two are quite close, don't you think?" she murmurs, glancing at Hibiki and Miku.

"Mm," says Shirabe. "I…" She pauses. "I think they love each other very much."

"Woah," says Kirika, blinking. "You really think so?"

"The songs you sing when wielding a Symphogear reveal your inner thoughts," says Shirabe. "I… I might have been kind of distracted at the time, but I caught a few lyrics from their songs. I think they might have been singing about each other."

"Oooh," says Kirika, her cheeks feeling slightly warm. Even though Hibiki-san and Miku-san are only a year or two older than them, they're still far ahead of them in many areas, it seems like. "Wait, come to think of it, what are _our_ songs about?"

"To be honest," says Shirabe, "in the heat of battle, I don't really pay attention." She makes an apologetic face. "S-sorry."

"Ah, that's okay! Me neither!"

"We should really try recording our songs at our point," Shirabe says, looking thoughtful. "It might be interesting."

"That's a good idea!" The thought honestly never occurred to her before.

Shirabe pauses for a moment, thinking it over. She blushes. "On second thought, maybe let's not. It might be embarrassing."

"Ah." Kirika is honestly curious about what Shirabe is singing about in her Symphogear. But, if it reveals your inner thoughts… "Well, I guess that might be true… to a certain extent." She scratches the back of her head.

"By the way," says Shirabe, glancing over at Maria and Tsubasa. "What about them?"

"What about them?"

"Those two. Together. What do you think?"

"Huh?" Kirika squints. "Maybe? I'm not really sure I see it?"

"Hmm," says Shirabe. "Well. It's just a thought I had."

"Well, they do work pretty well together," says Kirika. "That Queens of Music concert was pretty good. Even if we did have to crash it afterwards. …Maaaaybe I can see it working."

Shirabe nods.

The casual talk with the visitors continues for about another half an hour or so, with Miku carefully keeping Hibiki away from the box of treats that's sitting on the table.

Eventually, Tsubasa says she has something to attend to and needs to be heading off soon, and Chris and Hibiki and Miku also gradually trail off and leave as well.

Finally, it's just Maria, Kirika, and Shirabe alone again.

And a half-eaten box of treats.

And only some of them were eaten by Hibiki.

"I suppose we should finish these off before they go stale," says Shirabe, glancing at the treats.

"Um," says Kirika. She shuffles, feeling a bit awkward. "To be honest, I wanted to buy chocolates to give to you. But there's really no way to do that in here." She picks up a particularly tasty-looking pastry and holds it out to Shirabe. "So this is all I can do…"

Shirabe blinks. "Oh."

"Happy Valentine's Day," says Kirika, smiling.

Shirabe just smiles and allows herself to be fed by Kirika. "These are actually so good," she says, after taking a bite of the pastry. "And really sugary, too. I'm going to regret eating so many of these, aren't I. The calories…"

"You were underweight to begin with," remarks Maria, helping herself to another one of the pastries in the box. "Miku-san was right. The two of you could always use a bit more weight on your bones."

"That's true, I suppose…" says Kirika.

Shirabe reaches into the box and holds out a pastry to Kirika. "My turn! Happy Valentine's Day!"

"Thank you!" Kirika says cheerfully, taking a bite.

Maria smiles light-heartedly. "Valentine's Day. A day celebrating love, huh…" She frowns. "But what exactly is love, anyway?..." She reflexively grasps at her pocket for a phantom relic that's no longer there.

Ah. That's right. The only remaining memento that Maria has of her passed sister, the Airgetlam relic, was confiscated before they were put into this cell.

"Hm," says Shirabe, looking thoughtful.

"I dunno!" says Kirika, her mouth full. "It's hard to put into words. But I do know I really love both of you!"

Shirabe smiles, her face reddening slightly.

"Oh," says Maria, looking slightly embarrassed as well. "Thank you. I love you both too."

"I… I love you too Kiri-chan," says Shirabe. "And Maria, you too." She smiles shyly. "I… I love you too. Ah. It's really embarrassing, saying the L word, huh."

"We should say it more often!" says Kirika. "And the world will be a better place."

"Mm," says Shirabe, smiling shyly. "There are many kinds of love, too, aren't there? Platonic love, familial love, romantic love."

Maria lets out a laugh. "Well, romance… Romance is a bit out of my league."

"No way!" says Kirika, turning around in shock. "But you're like, super pretty! And famous! You'd probably be able to get anyone you wanted if you tried!"

"Well…" says Maria, glancing away, looking slightly guilty. "I'm famous, but not in a good way."

"But!" says Kirika.

"What about Tsubasa?" asks Shirabe.

"Huh?" Maria blinks in surprise. She makes a face. "Huh!? What the heck? Where did you get that from? No no no, Tsubasa and I aren't like that at all! We're both women?"

"I think true love is something that can flourish regardless of gender," says Shirabe.

Maria stares, and then looks away, her face reddening. "It's a bit embarrassing when you say it so seriously like that," she murmurs.

"That's super mature sounding," remarks Kirika, slightly impressed.

"Is it really?" asks Shirabe, blinking. "I just said what was on my mind…"

"Anyway," says Maria, crossing her arms, looking flustered. "Tsubasa and I aren't like that at all. Seriously. I mean, she's cute, but… anyway, it's rude to try and pair together people in real life."

"Sorry," says Shirabe, sounding apologetic. "I won't bring it up again."

Maria lets out a sigh of relief. "As long as you understand." She rests her hand on her forehead. "There's no way she'd be interested in someone like me, anyway. I mean, look, here I am, in this prison. I've done things that can't be forgiven. There's no way she'd… Someone like me, there's no way she'd…" She grimaces, as if holding back tears.

Kirika rests a hand on Maria's shoulder. "There, there."

Shirabe follows Kirika's lead, resting a hand on Maria's other shoulder. "There, there."

There's an awkward silence.

"Have more confidence!" says Kirika.

Maria doesn't look like she agrees.

"Soon we'll be out of here," declares Kirika, "and we'll have to make the best of our new lives!"

"A second chance at life," says Shirabe, trying to sound upbeat. "We should probably try to make the most of it."

Maria closes her eyes, smiling weakly. "I… I suppose."

Kirika nods. And then she glances casually at the pastries box, and slowly reaches over to take another one.

"If you eat too many of those, you won't have any appetite for dinner!" says Maria.

"Huh?" says Kirika, smirking. "What was that about us needing to eat more, though?"

"Everything in moderation!" says Maria. "We can make these last a few days. We don't need to finish everything now."

"But these _taste_ good," says Shirabe, reaching for another one as well. "And if I don't eat these now, the two of you are going to eat the rest!"

"You can't just eat things that taste good, you need to eat healthy things too!" says Maria, her hands on her hips.

"Then why are you reaching for one too?" asks Kirika, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm just taking the bullet and eating these unhealthy snacks so that the two of you have more of an appetite for the more healthy foods," says Maria without missing a beat, taking a bite of the pastry in her hands. "This is just my duty as the grown-up in the room."

Shirabe and Kirika glance at each other and giggle.

"Right," says Kirika, winking. "Yeah. Of course."

Shirabe giggles, and winks too.

Maria tries to hold her serious expression, but the edges of her mouth slowly curl into a smile and then she starts giggling too. "We'll split these evenly, 1 to 1 to 1," she says, smiling weakly.

And she does a wink, too.


	7. ...Smiling, smiling

Shirabe rolls over sleepily in her bed, frowning slightly when she notices that Kirika isn't in the bed next to her.

Kirika must have already woken up, then. What time is it? Is it almost breakfast time already?

Something feels… slightly off.

Normally, Shirabe would gradually surface into wakefulness from her slumber to the gentle, distant sounds of Kirika showering, or perhaps Kirika and Maria chatting in hushed voices.

But today, it's completely silent.

What's going on?

Shirabe cracks open an eye, and nearly jolts in surprise when she sees Maria and Kirika standing right next to the bed staring directly at her, their heads peeking over the top of the bunk bed.

"Ah…" says Shirabe, blinking rapidly. "Good morning."

"Good morning!" Maria says cheerfully.

"Today's a very special day!" chirps Kirika, looking delighted. "Do you know what day it is?"

"Uhhh…" Shirabe has to stop and think for a moment, because it's really easy to lose track of time when you're trapped in a prison cell all day and all night. (Come to think of it, has already been a couple of months since she last saw the sun?) "…Tuesday?"

"No, silly!" says Kirika. "It's your birthday!"

"My birthday?" asks Shirabe, blinking. She's still half asleep, so her brain is taking a long moment to process things. Really? It is?

"Happy birthday, Shirabe!" says Maria, holding out a small box. "I'm sorry we couldn't get anything fancier, but our circumstances…"

"Huh?" Shirabe stares blankly at the present in Maria's hand. "I… how did you manage to get a present for me? We've been stuck in the same cell for all this time."

"A secret," says Maria, winking.

"Huh," says Shirabe. She sits up on her bed, blinking sleepily, still feeling slightly disoriented. She takes the box out of Maria's hands, bowing slightly out of reflex. "Thank you. Uh, to be honest, I'd completely forgotten that it was my birthday today, so…"

"How could you forget that today was your own birthday?" exclaims Kirika, looking upset by the thought.

"I didn't think it was important," says Shirabe, still staring at the box in her hands, not really sure what to make of it.

She opens it.

It's a couple of pastries.

A couple of _very familiar-looking_ pastries.

Shirabe stares. "Uhhh. Aren't these just the treats that Hibiki-san and her friends brought us a couple of days ago?"

Maria sticks her tongue out. "You saw through it, huh."

Shirabe blinks. "I thought we already ate them all."

"I secretly set one aside, since I knew your birthday was coming up," says Maria, winking. "And it looks like Kirika here had the same idea. So we combined our gifts, and so these two are now yours."

Shirabe lets out a giggle. "You two…" She tries to hold back some more laughs, but fails miserably. That's so… silly! "Uh… I certainly didn't expect it, to say the least. So you certainly surprised me."

Kirika beams. "That's great!"

"Uh," says Shirabe, smiling as she carefully sets the box aside, closing it back up. "Let me just brush my teeth first…"

"Of course!" chirps Kirika, stepping aside to give Shirabe access to the ladder. "You're the birthday girl today, so we'll do anything you ask!"

"Anything I ask, huh…"

Shirabe absentmindedly goes through her morning routine, as usual.

Birthdays have never been anything particularly special, back at the F.I.S. orphanage. There would be a dry, bureaucratic kind of acknowledgement in the form of a sheet of paper listing the birthdays for that month posted on the wall. Sometimes the cooking staff would be nice and give the birthday girl an extra serving of fruit or something.

Nothing fancy.

So to be honest, it's perhaps a bit unfortunate that they won't have a chance to celebrate her birthday outside of a prison cell this year.

But in retrospect, is it really that much different from what it was like back at F.I.S.?

No, Shirabe concludes. Not really.

So there's really nothing particularly worse about this birthday, then.

In fact, if you take into account the quality of life and quality of food they have in here, it's already a step up from F.I.S.!

Shirabe walks out of the bathroom and spots Kirika and Maria sitting next to the table, the small box of the two remaining pastries sitting there.

"What are you going to do with your birthday present?" asks Kirika, smiling eagerly. "Are you going to save it for later? Or will you eat it right now?"

Back at the orphanage, it had been rather rare for the orphanage to give them any kind of special treats, so demand was high; if one didn't act quickly, the treats would be quickly all taken by the other children. Shirabe had developed a habit of taking the treats and then hiding them away, so that she could enjoy them at her leisure in her own time, rather than having to scarf it down right away.

But despite Shirabe's knack for finding hiding spots, they didn't really have much privacy back in F.I.S., and other children had a tendency of finding her hidden snacks.

Though to be honest, Shirabe really never saw her snack stash being pilfered with her own eyes. She would just show up to her hiding spot one day and the snacks she hid away would be gone. It could be one of the children who took it. But it just as easily could have been one of the staff members. Perhaps disposing of it in a "tut-tut" kind of way. Who knows.

Shirabe really doesn't know. She shouldn't make assumptions.

Her hoarding habits aside, there's really no need to do that here, because Kirika and Maria are both pretty respectful of Shirabe's personal space and belongings.

Well, sometimes Kirika would make those begging puppy-dog eyes and ask if she could have some snacks from Shirabe's savings. Because Shirabe's hoarding tendencies were really strong, any stockpile of snacks she managed to build up had a tendency of lasting much longer than anyone else's. So normally, she'd have a lot of treats left over after everyone else already ate theirs.

But as persistent as Kirika might be, she would never take from Shirabe's pile if Shirabe wasn't okay with it.

Shirabe would know.

Kirika is really bad at lying.

Anyway.

In any case, she shouldn't keep these pastries for too long, because they'll start to go stale.

Shirabe clenches a fist. "I'm gonna eat them right now," she says. "Before breakfast!"

Kirika claps her hands together. "Ooh! Bold!"

She takes a seat at the table, picks up the pastry, and carefully breaks each both pastries into thirds. She nods at Maria and Kirika. "Take one," she says, picking one of the pieces and putting it in her mouth.

Maria's eyes widen. "Huh? No, no, these are all yours, Shirabe!" She gestures to Shirabe. "It's your birthday!"

"I'd… I'd feel awkward if I'm sitting here and eating these while you two are just staring at me," says Shirabe. She takes a small bite of the pastry and chews slowly. She swallows. "Please," she adds.

"No, no," says Maria, shaking her head. "I insist."

"Yeah, it's your birthday!" says Kirika, waving her hands. "It really sucks that we couldn't get you something more awesome. This is all we could manage. So please!"

Shirabe takes another small bite from her pastry, chewing slowly. "When it comes to stubbornness," she says, "I think I'm a bit more stubborn than either of you." She forces a smile. "So please. Take a portion. I don't want to argue about this."

"But…!" says Kirika, looking upset.

"I'm the birthday girl, right?" asks Shirabe.

There's a short pause. "Yes?..." says Kirika.

"So you have to do what I say," says Shirabe, taking another bite. "And the birthday girl says, eat."

There's another long silence, Maria and Kirika exchanging uncertain glances.

"If you keep resisting," says Shirabe, "I'm just gonna go to the bathroom less frequently and then clog up the toilet again."

"Aghhh, okay, okay, no need to get hasty!" says Kirika, picking up one of the pieces and taking a big bite from it. "See, I'm eating!"

Shirabe moves her glance to Maria, raising an eyebrow.

Maria lets out a long, suffering sigh, and then picks up one of the pastry pieces and takes a bite from it as well.

Shirabe smiles. "It's good, isn't it."

"Yeah…" says Maria, smiling. "It's very good."

"Delishe!" Kirika says with her mouth full.

Shirabe continues eating hers very slowly, while Kirika and Maria work through their share of the pastries relatively quickly. Shirabe is still only halfway through her one remaining piece by the time Kirika and Maria finish theirs.

"Geez, you really do go through these slowly, huh," says Kirika, tilting her head. "You still have so much left!" She points at the pastry chunk in Shirabe's hand.

Shirabe shrugs. "I like to go slowly and savour the flavour."

"Ah," says Kirika, nodding with her eyes closed. "Fair, fair."

Several minutes pass in relative silence as Shirabe works through the rest of her pastry.

It's rather early morning, after all. Shirabe still feels a bit drowsy from just having woken up, so she doesn't think she's in a really conversational mood.

Finally, she finishes the pastry. She licks her fingers. "Mm," she murmurs quietly. "Thanks again. I… I wasn't expecting a present. Even though if it was something we already received." She giggles slightly.

"It was the least we could do," says Maria, smiling. Her smile falters. "I… I wish we could have celebrated your birthday under better circumstances."

"…Yeah," says Shirabe. Really no arguing there.

"I was really looking forward to being able to throw a huge birthday party," says Kirika. "We never really had those back at the orphanage." She grimaces.

"At least we'll be out of here in time for your birthday, Kiri-chan," says Shirabe. "That's something, at least."

"My birthday…" says Kirika, letting out a sigh. She closes her eyes. "My birthday isn't my real birthday, so it isn't really something worth celebrating."

Shirabe's knowledge of Kirika's past is rather limited, since the blonde doesn't like to talk about it. But Shirabe does know that her childhood was rather… troubled.

Kirika's parents died when she was little, and the girl bounced around many places before she ended up at the F.I.S. orphanage. Because of her circumstances, Kirika didn't actually know what her birthday was when she arrived. But the staff needed something to fill out the forms with, so they just set her birthday to be the date that she arrived at the facility—April 13.

"I mean, your birthday isn't really more or less real than my name," says Shirabe. "It is what it is."

Shirabe's full name was also something that F.I.S. arbitrarily assigned to her when she first arrived, based on her belongings at the time.

Her memories of her childhood are hazy; all she really knows for sure is that she was involved in a car accident when she was younger. The accident took the lives of both her parents, leaving her all alone. She suffered a pretty nasty head injury in that accident too, and that was what ripped away so many of her childhood memories. The accident even took away her memory of her own name.

Amnesia can be so annoying like that sometimes.

"I like your name, though," Kirika says.

"I like it too," says Shirabe. "I mean. Well… I guess I was a bit bitter about it at first. Because well, I forgot my own name. That really frustrated me." She closes her eyes. "But Tsukuyomi Shirabe is who I am now, and it's the name that you and Maria and Serena and Hibiki-san and everyone else all know me by now. And…" She blinks.

Okay, what the heck, why is she tearing up a little.

She grimaces, wiping the corner of her eye. "Um. And… anyway, that's why I like this name. Even if it's not my true name, it _is_ my name now, in a sense." She pauses, trying to gather her thoughts. She glances at Kirika. "And your birthday is kind of similar, no? It's… well, it's what you make of it."

Kirika smiles weakly. "My birthday isn't really anything special though. It's not like April 13 was really any different from any other day, back at the facility. It was all the same, more or less. Your name… your name is different."

"Hrm," says Shirabe, not entirely agreeing. Even if April 13 isn't Kirika's true birthday, it's the birthday that was assigned to Kirika, and so Shirabe sure as heck is going to use that day to celebrate Kirika as much as she can! How can she get this sentiment across to Kirika?

When Kirika is all down about herself like this (which Shirabe really wishes would happen less often), it's really hard for Shirabe to bring her out of it.

"Well," says Maria, closing her eyes. "I'm not sure what plans the U.N. has for me, so I honestly can't guarantee that I'll actually have free time on April 13. But I'll do what I can. Your birthday will be the first birthday we can celebrate once we're out of here, so we should make the most of it."

Shirabe nods. "Yes. What she said."

"Hrrrrrm," says Kirika, drawing circles with her finger on the table, not looking like she agrees.

Maria turns to Shirabe, smiling apologetically. "I want to apologize again. I'm really sorry about this. It's my fault. If it hadn't been for me, we wouldn't be in this prison cell on your birthday…"

"No, it's my fault!" exclaims Kirika. "I was the one who was being dumb!"

"Well, I was dumber, and I'm older than you, so I should have known better," says Maria. "So it was my fault…"

"We were all being dumb," says Shirabe, trying to be conciliatory.

"Well I was dumber," says Kirika.

"Uh," says Shirabe, closing her eyes. She takes a deep breath, pausing for a moment. "I'm not sure if that's… I don't think this is a particularly productive line of conversation."

"Sorry," says Maria. "You're right. It's your birthday, Shirabe, so we should try to keep the mood cheerful."

"Too late for that," Kirika says glumly.

"Umm," says Shirabe, glancing back and forth between Maria and Kirika again. She… she really doesn't like it when these two are in this kind of self-deprecating mood.

What should she say?

She doesn't know what to say, so on an impulse, she starts singing.

"Happy birthday to me," she sings. "Happy birthday to me. Happy birrrrrthday dear Shirabe. Happy birthday to me."

Maria nods. "The copyright for the Happy Birthday song expired in the E.U. in 2017, so the song is now in the public domain. As such, there should be no copyright concerns with singing the song."

Shirabe and Kirika stare blankly at Maria.

"W…what?" says Kirika.

There's a short pause.

"A…as expected of a pop idol who rose into fame in only a couple of months," says Shirabe, feeling somewhat awed. "You really know your stuff!"

"It's nothing special," says Maria, trying to sound humble but clearly looking very proud about knowing that bit of trivia. "That was something everyone knows."

"I didn't know that!" says Shirabe.

Kirika still looks kind of glum, but she looks slightly more upbeat now, at least.

So, Shirabe decides to continue singing.

"How old are you now?" continues Shirabe. "How old are you now? How old are you nowwww? How old are you now?"

Kirika claps her hands together. "Are you one!" she says. "Are you two! Are you three! Are you four! Are you five! Are you six! Are you seven! Are you eight! Are you nine! Are you ten! Are you eleven! Are you twelve! Are you thirteen! Are you fourteen! Are you fifteen!" She pauses, glancing at Shirabe meaningfully.

Shirabe blinks, jolting slightly out of a reverie. "Wait, how old _am_ I?" She looks up at the ceiling, frowning in thought. "I was born in 2029, and this year's… uh, this year is 2044? I think? And…"

"You're 15," says Maria.

"Ah right, I knew that," says Shirabe.

Kirika giggles.

Shirabe claps her hands together. "Okay! Any other birthday songs out there?"

"I dunno!" says Kirika. "Let's just make something up!"

Shirabe closes her eyes. It's not the same as when she's wearing a Symphogear, so the words don't just flow into her mind effortlessly. But it's fine, the lyrics don't have to make sense. She just wants to sing.

_"It's a birthday,  
Mine today,  
In this prison cell,  
What are we here for?_

_"Today was fun,  
Yesterday was fun,  
The day before yesterday was not,  
But tomorrow, tomorrow will be even more fun!_

_"Once we're out of here,  
We'll eat popsicles  
And treats  
And food  
And drinks  
And do whatever we want!_

_"Birthday, today is my birthday  
But tomorrow won't be  
Someday will be  
Another birthday yet again_

_"The people I love  
Their birthdays  
I will celebrate  
Their birthdays_

_"On this birthday  
It's a bit sad  
But next year hopefully,  
I'll be a bit more glad_

_"Rhyming?  
I didn't plan that!  
I'm just making up words randomly on the spot  
Because it's my birthday_

_"Kiri-chan  
Maria  
Birthday  
Birthdayyyy!_

_"Running out of words  
To sing on my birthday  
But birthday song  
On my birthday  
Is fine  
Because we don't have to worry about copyright!"_

Kirika giggles.

Shirabe smiles, and continues.

_"Today, and tomorrow  
Whatever the future may bring  
I will look forward  
And remember this day  
As a reminder to myself  
That this birthday was the first birthday I had  
With friends who gave me a present  
And that just…"_

Shirabe pauses for a moment, feeling slightly choked up for some reason.

_"And that's just the best, isn't it?  
Whatever the future brings  
I will try my best  
The courage to face forward_

_"I'll smiling smile  
I'll be cheerful  
I'll going forward  
I'll show everyone this_

_"This… birthday song_ ," Shirabe finishes. She smiles. "Okay, done! That didn't make any sense." She giggles.

Kirika laughs, clapping her hands. "No, that was good!"

Shirabe smiles. Well, she's happy that Kirika seems to be in happier spirits now, in any case.

"Also gonna fact check you on that one!" says Kirika. "We've given you presents for your birthday before. I clearly remember giving you like, a whole kiss last your for your birthday!"

"Oh right, that tasted good," says Shirabe.

"Wait, _what_!?" exclaims Maria, looking concerned and scandalized at the time.

"A Hershey's kiss," Shirabe rushes to explain. "You know, the chocolate? The one that looks like a teardrop shape."

Maria stares blankly, before letting out a sigh of relief. "Ohhh, right. Of course. I thought… No, never mind me, I'm just being silly."

Wait, does Maria think the two of them actually kissed? Shirabe glances at Kirika and her face heats up at the thought. No. Um. Kisses on the cheek are one thing, but actual kisses are a bit…

Though actually…

Shirabe surreptitiously glances at Kirika's face. When Kirika returns the glance, as if noticing her gaze, Shirabe quickly averts her eyes. She feels her face heat up.

Okay, she feels a bit awkward now.

She carefully shelves that train of thought for a later time, because she feels too self-conscious thinking about that sort of thing when these two are right in front of her.

Maria meanwhile is talking cheerfully about something else now, so Shirabe lets out a breath and gracefully lets the topic change.

That afternoon, they receive one more surprise.

Genjuurou shows up in their prison cell with a… box in his hands? "Happy birthday, Shirabe-kun!" he exclaims cheerfully. "Sorry this isn't anything fancy. This was all we could scrape together on short notice, but…" He sets the box on the table. "I hope this will brighten your day a bit!"

"This is…?" Kirika reaches over and opens up the box.

It's a cake.

Woah.

It's a really fancy cake, too. With icing in fancy flower-like shapes, colourful fruit balls and strawberries decorating the top, and the words "Happy Birthday Shirabe!" written in red icing with someone with a clear talent for calligraphy. It looks like there are a decent number of paper plates, plastic spoons, and a plastic knife in here too.

The three girls stare blankly at the cake.

Not fancy, he says… What the heck, this is actually super fancy!

"Um, thank you!" says Maria, looking a bit confused. "We never told you our birthdays, though? And this is really too much…"

Genjuurou waves his hand, smiling. "We have access to some of your data from that facility in America. Though to be completely honest, I didn't think to check that databanks for your birthdays until this morning." He flashes a grin. "For youth, birthdays are an important milestone in ascending maturity! Every birthday deserves celebration! And your birthdays are no exception!"

"A…ah," says Shirabe, blinking. "R-right. Thanks?"

Genjuurou flashes a thumbs up. "It's the least I could do. And Shirabe-kun…" He winks. "Excellent singing."

And with that, he walks out of the cell.

Ohhhh dammit, he overheard that?

So that's how he knew it was her birthday?

Hum.

"They… they don't have microphones in here, do they?" asks Shirabe, feeling a bit embarrassed that someone else heard her nonsense singing.

"I mean, even if they do, that wouldn't be really any different from back at F.I.S.," says Maria. "Or so Mom told me."

"Maybe they just overheard you in passing," says Kirika. "I remember Ogawa-san saying he walks past this hallway every morning."

"Maybe…" says Shirabe, still not entirely convinced.

"Ugh." Maria glances a bit warily at the box. "My weight…"

"Well, you're the one who said we need to eat more," says Kirika, already reaching forward to cut herself a slice.

"Perhaps we should ask for some more healthy snacks as well," says Shirabe, carefully cutting herself a slice of her own. "Like fresh fruits, or something. I actually really like fresh fruits. We didn't really get good quality ones back at F.I.S."

"True!" says Kirika. She smiles, taking a big bite of the cake. "Mmmm, this is good!"

"It's a bit sweet," says Maria, after taking a bite of her own slice of cake.

"I think it's exactly as sweet as it needs to be!" says Kirika.

Shirabe smiles. "This was nice of them, though."

All in all…

She's spending time with her loved ones.

She's eating good food.

This birthday isn't turning out that badly, all things considered.


End file.
